Bombardier JetTrain

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Bombardier JetTrain was not a separate company but an ambitious Bombardier Transportation project: a sleek, turbine-powered high-speed locomotive meant to make North American rail move like it had somewhere extremely important to be. The public-private development effort with the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration began in 1998.

The prototype was completed in June 2000 and tested at the Transportation Technology Center near Pueblo, Colorado, reaching 156 mph. Bombardier formally unveiled JetTrain technology at Washington Union Station on October 15, 2002. Its pitch was wonderfully direct: electric-train speed and acceleration without having to string electrification over every mile of track.

Bombardier Transportation originated in Canada in 1974, with headquarters in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Québec, before its global headquarters became Berlin, Germany. Its rail empire expanded notably through the 2001 acquisition of Adtranz. JetTrain toured and chased prospective U.S. and Canadian projects, including Florida and the Québec City–Windsor corridor, but never entered regular passenger service. A spectacular what-if, parked permanently at the station.

Alstom completed its acquisition of Bombardier Transportation on January 29, 2021, ending the division’s independent run. Our Bombardier JetTrain collection celebrates that glorious early-2000s belief that the answer to intercity rail was, obviously, putting a jet engine in it.